System and method for providing a customer survey

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing a follow-up survey for purchases made at a merchant entity. A customer can make a purchase at a merchant entity, such as a restaurant, and a system can coordinate and store data about the customer using a purchasing account. When the customer visits a website or application associated with the merchant entity, the system can determine if an offer to take a survey exists for the customer. If an offer exists, the system can prompt the customer to take the survey to receive a discount on future purchases made at the merchant entity. Once the customer completes the survey, the system monitors future purchases by the customer and applies the discount appropriately the next time the customer uses the purchasing account at the merchant entity.

PRIORITY

This continuation-in-part application claims priority to U.S. Nonprovisional Application 14/193,068 (Attorney Docket 080-0050-Con), filed Feb. 28, 2014, which is a continuation of 12/075,655 (Attorney Docket 080-0050), filed Mar. 13, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No.: 8,676,704 issued on Mar. 18, 2014, and to U.S. Nonprovisional Application 12/475,122 (Attorney Docket 080-0051), filed May 29, 2009, which claims priority to Provisional Application 61/057,106, filed May 29, 2008 (Attorney Docket 080-0051-Prov), the content of which applications is incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to providing a customer survey for services rendered and more specifically to automating customer surveys based on previously purchases by a user and related discounts via a website or mobile application such that card-linked offers are provided which are redeemable using a payment account associated with the offer after the customer completes a survey or other interaction.

2. Introduction

Businesses such as restaurants and stores often provide customers the opportunity to take surveys relating to services rendered to the customer. As an incentive for taking the time to complete the survey, businesses often give discounts toward future services or purchases. Traditionally, comment cards and paper surveys are supplied to patrons at businesses to receive input from the patrons about the service they received from the business. More recently, businesses have been utilizing the internet by giving a receipt to the customer with instructions to visit a particular website and enter in a unique code associated with a transaction between the business and the customer. The discount is challenging to redeem due to frequent misplacement of the discount code and the customer forgetting that a discount exists during a subsequent visit to the business.

SUMMARY

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.

Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for providing a customer survey. A system enables a user to make a purchase at a restaurant or any merchant entity such as a clothing store or a restaurant. Based on data associated with that purchase, ie, gleaned from a payment account and including optional personalized data from a person associated with the merchant like a waiter, the system links that information to a later interaction with the user via the internet or an application. The system provides the user a customer survey automatically through a website or other application, such as a smartphone application. When the user goes to an entity website, such as www.olivegarden.com they can complete a survey about their experience at the entity and receive a discount for a future purchase. The survey can include such comments as “it was great to see you Friday night at the Olive Garden, Mary, here is a short survey for your next discount.” The system can coordinate communication between its database storing the purchase information with the website/application to extend an offer to the user to take the survey. The offer is linked to the person's payment account. The next time the user visits the entity, the discount is automatically applied as it is connected to the user's payment account such as a visa or debit account. In this manner, a purchase by the user in the first instance triggers and drives the later survey/interaction and then the second purchase with the offer linked to it. The offer can also be shared with friends. For example, it may say—you will get a 10% discount next time and 5% each for two friends who you refer this offer to. Thus, the offer can be shared or tied to other people in your social network as well.

The system can receive data about a purchase made at a merchant which was performed using an open loop purchasing account that existed prior to the purchase, such as a purchase made at a restaurant using a debit/credit/Paypal®/Google Wallet® or other payment account, even a closed loop account. The system can receive data associated with the purchase made by the user from a representative of the merchant, such as a waitress or a waiter. Then, the system can receive information that the user has interacted with either a website or an application associated with the merchant, such as a mobile application. The system determines based on the information that the data indicates there is an offer for the user associated with an incentive to have the user make a second purchase at the merchant if the user performs an action, such as take a survey. The offer is linked to the user's payment account such that the monitoring and processing all occurs “in the cloud” and the user just continues to shop as usual. Data is received from the user via the interactive interface indicating that the user performed the action. Based on the received data, the system completes the offer by establishing a policy such that purchases made using the purchasing account are monitored. When the purchasing account is used at the merchant to perform the second purchase, a discount is automatically applied to the purchase according to the offer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example smartphone application system embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method embodiment; and

FIG. 5 illustrates another method embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system, method and computer-readable media are disclosed which provide a customer survey and associated discount automatically for subsequent purchases at a merchant entity by the customer.

Various embodiments of the disclosure are described in detail below. While specific implementations are described, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. Other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

The present disclosure addresses providing a customer survey. A system, method and computer-readable media are disclosed which provides a customer survey based on interaction between a user and a computer program such as a website or smartphone application. A brief introductory description of a basic general purpose system or computing device in FIG. 1 which can be employed to practice the concepts is disclosed herein. A more detailed description of providing a customer survey will then follow.

A system enables a user to make a purchase at a restaurant or any merchant entity such as a clothing store via a payment account, and provides the user a customer survey automatically through a website or other application, such as a smartphone application. The system coordinates and stores data about the user by virtue of the credit card/debit card number (or any payment mechanism) used to pay for goods or services, or other payment mechanism such as an electronic wallet. An electronic wallet is an account the user previously and typically uses to make purchases. For example, data that can be stored can include, for a restaurant, the user name, user account (either identified directly or via a code to preserve privacy), server name, product purchased, date, time, historical data, etc. Any combination of this data can be stored. When the user goes to an entity website, such as www.olivegarden.com or www.pfchangs.com, they can complete a survey about their experience at the entity and receive a discount. The system can coordinate communication between its database storing the purchase information with the website/application to extend an offer, linked to their payment account, to the user to take the survey. After the user takes the survey, a discount can automatically be applied to a subsequent purchase by the user at the merchant entity. In essence, the card-linked offer or payment account linked offer is triggered by the use of the payment account by the user. A relationship with the business entity is already established in that a purchase is made at that place. The effort in this disclosure is to enhance that business relationship and enable people to connect with people associated with the merchant such as waiters and waitresses.

These variations shall be described herein as the various embodiments are set forth. The disclosure now turns to FIG. 1.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system 100 includes a general-purpose computing device 100, including a processing unit (CPU or processor) 120 and a system bus 110 that couples various system components including the system memory 130 such as read only memory (ROM) 140 and random access memory (RAM) 150 to the processor 120. The system 100 can include a cache 122 of high speed memory connected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of the processor 120. The system 100 copies data from the memory 130 and/or the storage device 160 to the cache 122 for quick access by the processor 120. In this way, the cache provides a performance boost that avoids processor 120 delays while waiting for data. These and other modules can control or be configured to control the processor 120 to perform various actions. Other system memory 130 may be available for use as well. The memory 130 can include multiple different types of memory with different performance characteristics. It can be appreciated that the disclosure may operate on a computing device 100 with more than one processor 120 or on a group or cluster of computing devices networked together to provide greater processing capability. The processor 120 can include any general purpose processor and a hardware module or software module, such as module 1 162, module 2 164, and module 3 166 stored in storage device 160, configured to control the processor 120 as well as a special-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. The processor 120 may essentially be a completely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores or processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processor may be symmetric or asymmetric.

The system bus 110 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. A basic input/output (BIOS) stored in ROM 140 or the like, may provide the basic routine that helps to transfer information between elements within the computing device 100, such as during start-up. The computing device 100 further includes storage devices 160 such as a hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive or the like. The storage device 160 can include software modules 162, 164, 166 for controlling the processor 120. Other hardware or software modules are contemplated. The storage device 160 is connected to the system bus 110 by a drive interface. The drives and the associated computer-readable storage media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computing device 100. In one aspect, a hardware module that performs a particular function includes the software component stored in a tangible computer-readable storage medium in connection with the necessary hardware components, such as the processor 120, bus 110, display 170, and so forth, to carry out the function. In another aspect, the system can use a processor and computer-readable storage medium to store instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method or other specific actions. The basic components and appropriate variations are contemplated depending on the type of device, such as whether the device 100 is a small, handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computer server.

Although the exemplary embodiment described herein employs the hard disk 160, other types of computer-readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories (RAMs) 150, read only memory (ROM) 140, a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment. Tangible computer-readable storage media, computer-readable storage devices, or computer-readable memory devices, expressly exclude media such as transitory waves, energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

To enable user interaction with the computing device 100, an input device 190 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. An output device 170 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodal systems enable a user to provide multiple types of input to communicate with the computing device 100. The communications interface 180 generally governs and manages the user input and system output. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodiment is presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks labeled as a “processor” or processor 120. The functions these blocks represent may be provided through the use of either shared or dedicated hardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of executing software and hardware, such as a processor 120, that is purpose-built to operate as an equivalent to software executing on a general purpose processor. For example the functions of one or more processors presented in FIG. 1 may be provided by a single shared processor or multiple processors. (Use of the term “processor” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software.) Illustrative embodiments may include microprocessor and/or digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) 140 for storing software performing the operations described below, and random access memory (RAM) 150 for storing results. Very large scale integration (VLSI) hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI circuitry in combination with a general purpose DSP circuit, may also be provided.

The logical operations of the various embodiments are implemented as: (1) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or procedures running on a programmable circuit within a general use computer, (2) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or procedures running on a specific-use programmable circuit; and/or (3) interconnected machine modules or program engines within the programmable circuits. The system 100 shown in FIG. 1 can practice all or part of the recited methods, can be a part of the recited systems, and/or can operate according to instructions in the recited tangible computer-readable storage media. Such logical operations can be implemented as modules configured to control the processor 120 to perform particular functions according to the programming of the module. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates three modules Mod1 162, Mod2 164 and Mod3166 which are modules configured to control the processor 120. These modules may be stored on the storage device 160 and loaded into RAM 150 or memory 130 at runtime or may be stored in other computer-readable memory locations.

Having disclosed some components of a computing system, the disclosure now turns to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates an example system 200 that implements providing a survey to a customer 202 associated with a merchant entity such as a restaurant 204. A computer server 206 can receive data about a purchase at a first time by a user 202 at a merchant entity 204 using an existing open loop purchasing account of the user. (A closed loop account could apply as well). An open loop purchasing account is an account that can be used anywhere such as a credit card account or debit card account. Purchase data can be stored securely on the server using encryption, for example.

At a second time later than the first time, the user can use an application or browser on a device 208 (such as a smartphone, laptop, tablet, desktop, etc.) related to the merchant entity. Accessing the website or application can cause a process to occur in which the user is identified and data is sent from the device to the server. The server receives an indication from the website or application of the user and can receive information associated with their purchasing account. The server confirms that the user made a purchase using their purchasing account at the merchant entity such that a survey and associated discount can be offered to the user at a later time. Once the server confirms that the user made a purchase at the merchant entity, it can provide personalized information to the website/application to initiate an offer to complete a survey or interact with the website/application in another way. For example, the website can display, “Mary, ‘like’ Bob's restaurant and receive a 5% discount next time you make a purchase at the restaurant using your VISA card.” The offer is associated with the user's VISA card such that the user simply needs to complete the survey to automatically receive the 5% discount the next time the user pays with his or her VISA card at Bob's restaurant. The interaction after the initial purchase can include personalized data such as a picture of the family taken by the waiter, or a text, or some personalized message from a person associated with the merchant that can be connected to the survey and interaction that the user would engage in later after the initial purchase.

When the merchant is a restaurant, the waiter can include optional information in purchase data when processing payment for a meal such as photo of the waiter, or a message such as, “I hope you enjoyed your ice cream for dessert!” for a more personalized experience. The waiter can instruct the user to visit the merchant website, and after logging into the website, a survey will pop up with a message from the waiter. In the network, the fact that the user made a purchase will be connected to that user's account, and any personalized data from that visit will be encapsulated and prepared so that when they log into the website, the personalized information is presented to them, and pre-linked to their payment account for a future offer redemption. Once the user completes the survey (or other interaction), a 5% discount is rewarded for the next purchase at the restaurant. The optional information can include a field indicating reward amount that can be set by the waiter, for example 3% or 5% discount. An exemplary message from the waiter is, “You were great customers, I have input the maximum discount for your next visit.”

Allowing the waiter to input optional information provides an opportunity for a more expansive and enjoyable personalized interaction between a representative of the merchant and the customer. This type of interaction can occur between any person in a company interacting with a customer and is not limited to the restaurant scenario. For example, the interaction can occur for any person completing a sale with a customer such as a grocery store clerk or a hair stylist. The grocery store clerk can input information such as the length of line at his register and the amount of time it took him to complete the sale. The hair stylist can input a message such as, “That bob cut makes you look so much younger!” The ability for the representative of the merchant to insert a message, photo or video enables a more personalized approach and extends the personal experience with the merchant to an online experience that can strengthen the relationship between the user and the merchant, resulting in subsequent customer visits.

The interaction between the user and the merchant entity is not limiting and can occur using Facebook, Instagram or any other social media network. After a user makes a purchase at a merchant entity, a Facebook post can be presented on their newsfeed including a photo of the waitress, a personalized message and an offer for the user to input data via a survey or comment to receive a discount towards a future purchase. The discount can already be associated with the user's purchasing account such that the user does not need a code, physical gift card, coupon, etc. to redeem the earned discount. In one embodiment, when the social media post appears on the social network, the system can require the user to “like” the post or otherwise interact with the post to activate the offer or to link the card to the offer. The offer can be pre-linked with the user's payment account, and then activated based on the user interacting with the post, such as a “like”, a comment, a reply, a share, and so forth. The system can require some personal interaction with the waiter or waitress prior to posting on the social network of the user on behalf of the merchant. The pre-linking can include a pre-arranged communication with the waiter, so the user can send a reply post to the waiter's Facebook page, the restaurant's page, or to the Facebook page of that location of the restaurant.

In one embodiment, the system can track user transaction with a merchant over time, and when a specific set of conditions are triggered over a set of multiple transactions, the system can pre-link an offer with the user's payment account. A policy of monitoring the user's purchases can also span multiple merchants. For example, a restaurant in a mall can coordinate with a movie theater and together offer a discount on dinner and a movie upon receiving the data that the user of a payment account within a six hour span went to dinner at the restaurant and purchase movie tickets at the theater. The offer can be a 15% discount off a future transaction or transactions with the restaurant or the movie theater or both together. The notice of the card linked offer can automatically provide a discount and reimbursement of the transaction that already occurred. For example, the notification can say “We are crediting you 10% off this transaction, and you will get 15% off your next purchase.”

Other companies can receive or track purchase data and send card-linked offers to users based on that purchase data. For example, an ice cream parlor may wish to attract customers on date nights, and can send time-sensitive card linked offers to people that have gone to dinner and movie, so they will get a 20% discount off a purchase of ice cream after the movie. Or, a competitor restaurant may track that a user goes to Olive Garden frequently, and after 3 dinners at Olive Garden, the competitor restaurant can send the user notice of a card-linked offer inviting him or her to try eating there instead.

The system can select the timing of notices of card-linked offers based on transaction data and other personal profile information. For example, the system can determine that the user has an anniversary coming in two weeks, and can send a customized card-linked offer to the user for dinner at a restaurant the user frequently patronizes, or to a restaurant that the user habitually patronizes around the time of the anniversary. The system can time these personalized, customized card linked offers based on holidays, birthdays, wedding dates, anniversaries or other life events, travel, and so forth. The system can use all the transaction data and other personal profile data to determine when to trigger an advertisement or notification of a card-linked offer.

Transactions being returns, refunds, partial credit back,

FIG. 3 illustrates an example smartphone providing a survey to a customer with screenshots 300. The user may be logged into a browser or other application 302 that enables data associated with the user session in their browser or other application to be coordinated with another networked computer that stores purchase data 206. When the user 202 having a registered account visits a website such as olivegarden.com, the local computer can ping the network database 206 for a match to see if the logged in user recently made a purchase and is able to or authorized to perform a survey for a discount. The user can be using the application 302 for any reason, such as searching for restaurant locations, reading an updated menu or downloading favorite recipes. The registered account can include name and payment account information. If there is a match, the webpage or application can be customized to present an offer to perform a survey 304. One example is, “Mary, we hope you enjoyed your meal at the Olive Garden and Paul your waiter. Get a 5% discount on your next meal.” The user can follow a hyperlink to the survey or can click a “Take Survey” button, for example to access the survey. The user then completes the survey 306 and provides data about their experience. Data can be collected in any number of ways from the user such as point and click using graphics such as stars to rate the overall experience, slider bars, radio buttons, text boxes, voice recordings, pictures, etc.

When the system determines that the user has completed the survey, the system can create a policy in which a discount, such as 5%, is provided to the user on the next purchase at the restaurant. Because the survey and data are associated with the user's payment account, there is no need to use a coupon or code when making a purchase. For example, the user simply goes to eat again at the same restaurant according to the policy and the system 206 monitors for a purchase. When the system detects a qualifying purchase 204, the system implements the discount associated with taking the survey for the user. Other interactions such as social networking experiences and interactions are possible as the system is tracking the purchases of the user. For example, the system can post on the user's Facebook wall that the user has completed a survey for the Olive Garden and can post the overall experience of the user in hopes of attracting more customers. The discount awarded to the customer for completing the survey can vary based on how detailed a survey the user provides. For example, if there are 10 questions available, each question could be a 1% discount. Alternately, the discount can be associated with the amount of time the user spends completing the survey such as 5% for two minutes, 6% for four minutes, etc.

Having disclosed some basic system components and concepts, the disclosure now turns to the exemplary method embodiment shown in FIG. 4. For the sake of clarity, the method is described in terms of an exemplary system 100 as shown in FIG. 1 configured to practice the method. The steps outlined herein are exemplary and can be implemented in any combination thereof, including combinations that exclude, add, or modify certain steps. The system receives first data about a purchase by a user at a first time at a merchant, the purchase performed using a purchasing account which existed prior to the first time and is an open loop purchasing account of the user (402). First data can include information identifying the user, the purchasing account, a date and time of the purchase, and a location of the purchase. Then the system receives second data from a representative of the merchant, the second data being associated with the purchase by the user (404). The merchant can be a restaurant and the representative can be a waiter or waitress. The second data from the representative can include a comment, a picture or a video. Next the system receives information that the user has interacted with one of a website and an application associated with the merchant at a second time later than the first time (406). Then the system determines, based on the information that the first data indicates that there is an offer for the user associated with an incentive to have the user make a second purchase at the merchant if the user performs an action, such as take a survey (408). The system presents an interactive interface to the user via one of the website and the application about the offer, the interactive communication including the second data from the representative and asking the user to perform the action (410). The interactive interface can be a social media network, website or other application. The action can be one of taking a survey, sending a tweet, posting a comment and “liking” the merchant via a social media network. The system receives third data from the user via the interactive interface indicating that the user performed the action (412) and based on the third data, completing the offer by establishing a policy in which purchases using the purchasing account are monitored (414). When the purchasing account is used at the merchant to perform the second purchase, the system applies a discount to the second purchase according to the offer (416).

In another embodiment shown in FIG. 5, other real-time features can occur while a user or person is at a business entity, such as a restaurant. The method includes receiving a reservation or an identification of an event associated with a business entity (502). This is an optional feature and generally covers receiving some kind of interaction associated with the merchant. However, automated systems can apply as well and it is not necessary for the main part of the process in this embodiment for there to be a reservation or advanced interaction between the user and the merchant. In one example of having an interaction, a user may go and make a reservation with a restaurant. When the user (or the user's device identified by geo-fencing or any other identification system) is then at the business entity, a system can send a notification (text, email, social networking post from the business entity social entity presence to the user's social entity presence) urging them to buy a gift such as a gift card (virtual gift card, or offer) for another person of their choice (504). If they do that, then the notification to the user can enable a discount off of their bill which they may be about getting ready to pay (506). The benefit provided if the user takes the action can be quite flexible. It might be a discount connected to their payment account so when they pay the bill, the discount is applied. It might be a series of discounts over several visits. The business may also partner with another business to offer a multiple business, time-based benefit such as a dinner and then a movie next door at the theater. For example, the notice to the user may be: “Mary, send a $10 gift to our restaurant to a friend of your choice and we'll treat you to a $15 discount on this meal and ½ movie tickets next door at the theater.” It could be a hybrid kind of set of benefits such as 10,000 airline miles and a movie or $10 off the meal plus a gas discount. The gift that the customer gives to a friend at that time could also be very flexible. It might be a free dessert at the restaurant (paid for by the customer or the restaurant may offer to pay). The gift is tied to the friend's payment account so if the friend receives the gift, they too just have to come and eat and make a purchase and pay as they normally would pay.

The benefit also could be tied to whether the recipient accepts or interacts with the purchase or takes an action as well. For example, Mary may receive a notice that says “send a friend a free dessert on us and if they answer two questions about our restaurant when they get the gift, we'll let them know that they just doubled your discount!” Thus, the steps in this case include a step of modifying the discount/benefit to the customer if the friend who received a gift from the customer interacts in some way or takes some action based on the notice/offer/gift that they received.

In this manner, the business entity can engage in a real time interaction with the user and present in real-time a discount for that action. An example follows. Enabling the discount occurs because the notice/offer is linked to the user payment account and if the user takes the action, the system can be triggered to start monitoring their purchases such that their purchase at the merchant, even almost in real time right after they may have taken the appropriate action, can cause the discount to be applied. The discount can be directly applied such that the price of the meal is reduced when the user pays or the user may pay and be reimbursed the discount amount. Thus the benefit received by the user can be applied in any number of different ways and even could extend to their next meal as well. For example, the discount may be $5 now and automatically $5 for their next meal. The “policy” that could follow that discount would then apply the first $5 to the current meal and continue to monitor for later purchases and apply the second half of the discount.

Assume that Mary makes a reservation to go to the Olive Garden to eat on Tuesday at 7PM. She may add to that reservation other data such as friends that are coming with her. Data associated with that experience then can include other user profile and social networking data such as birthdays, friends, friends who like to eat at the Olive Garden, past history, location-based data, etc. When Mary arrives at the Olive Garden with her smartphone or other device, the system can be monitoring her movement after the reservation to insure or identify when she has arrived. The system may even be able to monitor down to a specific table or location and either automatically, or with assistance from an employee of the restaurant, the purchased meals of the person. At some point during the meal, the system identifies an “offer” and transmits it to Mary's device. The offer could be chosen based on any data disclosed herein, such as who she is currently with (nor not with), her social network, historical data, other reservations that are made by friends within her social network, etc. The offer can be structured to have her do something to receive a discount on the meal she is about to pay for. The offer could be: Mary, if you give a virtual gift to a friend for a meal at the Olive Garden for $10, we'll double it and give you a $5 discount today. The offer could be: Mary, choose a friend to receive a $5 discount on their next meal at Olive Garden. Your friend John Smith has a reservation next week, so he is pre-chosen for you. We'll fund the discount and give you a $5 discount on your current meal when you pay using your credit card.

The offer therefore can be funded by the customer, funded by the restaurant, or a combination of both. The offer is linked to both the customer's payment account, as well as their friend's payment account when the friend is identified and chosen by the customer. The offer will present an interface that enables the customer to choose from their social network of friends, or add a friend as would normally be done. Enrollment or registration procedures can be performed in the normal fashion so that the customer and the friends can give and receive benefits or discounts. The benefits here can also be anything, in addition to money. The offer could say: “Mary, we'll enable you to give 10,000 bonus points to the friend of your choice, and if you choose a friend, we'll give you a $10 discount on your meal today.

Thus, the above embodiment involves receiving a notification or an offer from a business entity, person, or other entity that includes a conditional step of doing something which when the condition is satisfied, provides a benefit which is pre-connected or linked to the recipient's payment account or points account. The “something” could be anything such as posting a selfie picture mentioning the restaurant on your Instagram or Facebook account. The benefit to the person taking the action could be points or a discount. The benefit could t tied to results of the action. For example, when Mary walks into the restaurant, they could have an offering to her that if she posts a picture of her and her friends, by the time they pay for the mail, they will get a discount based on the number of “likes”, comments, views and/or other interaction with the posting. Each “like” may be 50 cents off the meal up to $10. In one aspect, the triggering event for enabling the offer could be a pre-reservation by the person but it could also be initiated by the person where they could just check in with an app associated with the business entity to see if there are any offers they desire to use. Then they could take the action and benefit from the offer. This approach is quite powerful in the sense that it causes an “advertisement” for the business entity to come from a customer and not directly from the business entity. It provides a benefit to the customer by way of a linked discount which they redeem just using their existing payment account in the same normal fashion that they would otherwise pay, and connects both the customer and their friend who gets the “gift” to the business entity in a unique way in that it bring the business into the social network with the company and the friend.

The notification could present the customer with options too. The notification could present the customer with the chance to pay $10 out of their own pocket for a gift to their friend, for a $15 discount, or an offer to have the business pay for the gift to their friend of $10 for a current $5 discount for the customer's meal. Plus the customer could alter the amounts and see the changes in the overall gift and discount before it gets sent. Therefore, the notification or “offer” that is linked to their payment account or other account (miles account, points, etc.) can be interactive with a number of parameter that can be chosen or manipulated to define what the task is for the customer to earn or receive their discount or benefit.

An application could be used that handles all of the above interactions on a portable device settle the transaction. The application could store the customer's credit card/payment account/other account information as well which could alleviate the need to even give a waiter or waitress a payment card for processing. For example, a waiter could trigger via an interface a notice that the meal is done or the user, when they are ready to go, could have the application automatically or manually initiated such that it pops up for them to process payment. The amount of the meal could be prepared such that when the application starts, it just says “Thanks Mary for coming here, give a gift of $5 to a friend right now and receive $10 off your meal. Otherwise, click here to pay and go.” The tip could be automatic or the user could interact to provide the tip amount on the app. The user could set in a profile a tip percentage for all meals or input it manually. The app could include a notification component where based on location based-services, the store/business could know that they entered and perhaps even identify which table they are at. The app could include a picture of the person as well. So a user interface used by the store could include a graphic that shows where a person is and a picture of that person. The data would be transmitted locally from a customer's device to a reception device at the merchant and presented on graphic. Thus, as a waiter/waitress were to approach a table, he could have seen a picture of Mary with her name and perhaps other information (came here last Tuesday), and say “Hi Mary welcome back.” As the order was taken, an employee can enter the amount purchased on a system such that Mary is enabled to interact with her application to simply pay, get the discount, invite a friend, take a picture of video, send a gift, etc. through this simple app that automatically has the dinner amount for easy payment. The system could reward consumers with discounts if they used the app for their payments. This approach enhances the ability of a business to improve relationships with people and educates their employees regarding who is in the store for improved customer relations and easier payment processes.

The above approach could also help to coordinate a group payment situation. Assume 5 friends come in to eat a meal. They are each in their seats in positions 1-5 at the table. The waiter/waitress could take everyone's order. Usually, they will generally know which order goes with which seat. If the location-based services are good enough to pinpoint which person is sitting in which position, then the waiter could enter in their order price via an application or an interface that will be attached to each individual person. Each person gets their meal in the normal fashion but the cost for each meal is automatically processed and each person can easily and accurately have an opportunity to interact and pay for their individual meal with a convenience application, and without the need to pass around one total bill with each meal on it trying to figure out what each person owes. Since the application is already connected to each person's payment account, and perhaps a user profile that preselects a tip percentage or amount, each person to pay for their meal may only need to do a single click because the system could present “Mary, your meal was $18.50 and your standard tip is 15% for $2.76 which plus tax equals: $22.39, click here to pay.” All Mary had to do was to order with the waiter/waitress and all the other processing was handled “in the cloud.” This approach will greatly simplify meal purchases and further enable more enjoyable social experiences with friends where no one person is treating.

In addition, those at the table could simple tell a waiter that Mary has a birthday and everyone else is treating. With only that amount of data, the waiter/waitress could then input the costs of everyone's meals and spread the cost of Mary's meal to everyone else. The notice to any individual person could then be something like: “John, your meal, standard tip and tax totaled $23.45, plus you owed $6.50 of Mary's meal, tax and tip, for a total of: $29.95. Click here to pay.” These and other variations could also occur such as enabling one person to just pay the tip and someone else to take care of the meal. Such options could just be told to the waiter/waitress. For example, the 5 friends could be at dinner and they could tell the waiter/waitress that John is treating but Mary is taking care of the tip. The interface that the waiter/waitress uses could then receive the data from the waiter/waitress which enables the employee to just choose the right person for which payment. Since everyone has the application and their mobile devices, the interface that the employee sees could be based on seat position or could show faces and menus of options to make the interaction which and easy and thus establish the “policy” for managing the payment and distribution of costs of the meal.

Of course these principles can apply to any group gift, group giving, service gift, travel plans, or any other purchasing decision in which more than one person is involved.

Embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure may also include tangible and/or non-transitory computer-readable storage media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such tangible computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer, including the functional design of any special purpose processor as described above. By way of example, and not limitation, such tangible computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions, data structures, or processor chip design. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, objects, and the functions inherent in the design of special-purpose processors, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.

Other embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. For example, the principles herein can apply to any merchant entity such as a store, movie theatre, salon, etc. Various modifications and changes may be made to the principles described herein without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. 

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: receiving first data about a purchase by a user at a first time at a merchant, the purchase performed using a purchasing account which existed prior to the first time and is an open loop purchasing account of the user; receiving second data from a representative of the merchant, the second data being associated with the purchase by the user; receiving information that the user has interacted with one of a website and an application associated with the merchant at a second time later than the first time; determining, based on the information, that the first data indicates that there is an offer for the user associated with an incentive to have the user make a second purchase at the merchant if the user performs an action; presenting an interactive interface to the user via the one of the website and the application about the offer, the interactive communication comprising the second data from the representative and asking the user to perform the action; receiving third data from the user via the interactive interface indicating that the user performed the action; based on the third data, completing the offer by establishing a policy in which purchases using the purchasing account are monitored; and when the purchasing account is used at the merchant to perform the second purchase, applying a discount to the second purchase according to the offer.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant is a restaurant and the representative is one of a waiter and a waitress.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises information identifying one of the user, the purchasing account, a date and time of the purchase, and a location of the purchase.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is one of taking a survey, sending a tweet, posting a comment, sending a gift to a recipient, and “liking” the merchant.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive interface is a social media network.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second data from the representative comprises one of a comment, a picture and a video.
 7. A system comprising: a processor; and a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising: receiving first data about a purchase by a user at a first time at a merchant, the purchase performed using a purchasing account which existed prior to the first time and is an open loop purchasing account of the user; receiving second data from a representative of the merchant, the second data being associated with the purchase by the user; receiving information that the user has interacted with one of a website and an application associated with the merchant at a second time later than the first time; determining, based on the information, that the first data indicates that there is an offer for the user associated with an incentive to have the user make a second purchase at the merchant if the user performs an action; presenting an interactive interface to the user via the one of the website and the application about the offer, the interactive communication comprising the second data from the representative and asking the user to perform the action; receiving third data from the user via the interactive interface indicating that the user performed the action; based on the third data, completing the offer by establishing a policy in which purchases using the purchasing account are monitored; and when the purchasing account is used at the merchant to perform the second purchase, applying a discount to the second purchase according to the offer.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the merchant is a restaurant and the representative is one of a waiter and a waitress.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the first data comprises information identifying one of the user, the purchasing account, a date and time of the purchase, and a location of the purchase.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the action is one of taking a survey, sending a tweet, posting a comment, sending a gift to a third party, and “liking” the merchant.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the interactive interface is a social media network.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein the second data from the representative comprises one of a comment, a picture and a video.
 13. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving first data about a purchase by a user at a first time at a merchant, the purchase performed using a purchasing account which existed prior to the first time and is an open loop purchasing account of the user; receiving second data from a representative of the merchant, the second data being associated with the purchase by the user; receiving information that the user has interacted with one of a website and an application associated with the merchant at a second time later than the first time; determining, based on the information, that the first data indicates that there is an offer for the user associated with an incentive to have the user make a second purchase at the merchant if the user performs an action; presenting an interactive interface to the user via the one of the website and the application about the offer, the interactive communication comprising the second data from the representative and asking the user to perform the action; receiving third data from the user via the interactive interface indicating that the user performed the action; based on the third data, completing the offer by establishing a policy in which purchases using the purchasing account are monitored; and when the purchasing account is used at the merchant to perform the second purchase, applying a discount to the second purchase according to the offer.
 14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the merchant is a restaurant and the representative is one of a waiter and a waitress.
 15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the first data comprises information identifying one of the user, the purchasing account, a date and time of the purchase, and a location of the purchase.
 16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the action is one of taking a survey, sending a tweet, posting a comment, choosing a recipient and sending a gift to the recipient, and “liking” the merchant.
 17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the interactive interface is a social media network.
 18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the second data from the representative comprises one of a comment, a picture and a video. 